Priceless Gifts and Seeking

I have intended to write this post for at least 2 weeks, but every time I have the chance to sit down and write, I feel "too tired" to think! But I am making the effort today!

Priceless gifts
At my school, we (teachers) do not get a lunch break for ourselves. We go with our students to lunch and monitor them and eat at the same time. Most days I stand with the line of students until the majority of them go through to get their lunch. The boys stand at the end of the line (we are teaching them to be gentlemen and let the ladies go first), so I usually have some conversations with a few of them. There is another teacher whom I always comment on how cute her lunch bag is, but I had always just carried my lunch down in tupperware. On the Tuesday after Labor Day, Calvin (6th grade boy) came into class and sat down in his seat. My co-teacher called me over a few minutes later because Calvin had something for me - a lunch bag. Now, this lunch bag is by no means cute or anything like the one the other teacher has, but I literally almost cried. It had been 3 day weekend, but at some point, Calvin intentionally thought of me and wanted to bring me a lunch bag. Although it is not cute, and regardless of whether I ever get a cute one, for this year, I will carry that bag with my lunch every day... The day after he gave it to me, we were doing the "Good Things" part of our class (when students' names are drawn at random and have to share something good that has happened in their life within the past 24 hours). Calvin got his name drawn and his "Good Thing" was that he got to give me my lunch bag. He was so proud! Priceless.

Seeking
In the 6th grade there are 103 students. Out of the 103, I have to be honest and say that there are 3 that I find hard to love well. They are just hard students. One boy in particular has really pushed me, and I had been at a loss as to how to handle him at all. He simply will not do what is asked of him (until maybe you ask him for the 100th time). As difficult as this boy is, I was challenged a week ago that I need to step outside of my self-centeredness, and make an effort to get to know this boy. The sinfulness in me kept saying I didn't want to get to know him or make that effort, but the mission of why I am where I am (God's purpose for me to be in urban education) was saying that I needed to build relational capacity with him. So, last Monday, I simply stopped him in the hall on his way to class, put my arm around his shoulder and started a conversation with him. I challenged him to make good choices and that I would check in on him at lunch to see how it was going. There was such a drastic change in the way he started responding to me in that first day. So daily, I am seeking him out to continue to try to build that relationship. By no means did this correct his behavior 100% of the time, but there has been a change in how he responds to me and the effort that I see him produce. So I will continue "seeking" him. Now I just need to push myself to seek the other two as well. :)